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發表於 2007-6-16 20:05:37
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Police are to examine the findings of a long-awaited report into allegations of illegal payments, or “bungs”, in football which for the first time identifies deals involving Chelsea, Britain’s highest-spending club.
Suspect deals involving four other clubs — Newcastle, Bolton, Middlesbrough and Portsmouth — will also face further investigation, according to Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington, the former Metropolitan Police Commissioner, in his final report to the Premier League.
Payments for 17 players who cost a total of about £100 million, including Didier Drogba, the Chelsea forward and last year’s top scorer in the Premiership, and Petr Cech, the club’s goalkeeper, have not been cleared by the report. Steve McClaren, the England head coach, may also be dragged into any subsequent inquiry after deals involving Middlesbrough, his former club, were said to require further examination.
The report was commissioned by the Premier League 17 months ago amid allegations that football players, agents and managers had received corrupt payments for their involvement in multimillion-pound transfer deals. The report will be passed to the Serious Fraud Office and City of London Police.
Lord Stevens told The Times yesterday that any criminal inquiry could take a long time to conclude. “The face of football has been transformed by this investigation. A lot of these deals involve international transfers so it will be a lot more work to drill down [to the evidence],” he said.
The report focuses on agents, some of whom will face further investigation from the Football Association. None of the five clubs, who all co-operated with the inquiry, has been reported for breaching transfer regulations. None of them was found to have taken illegal payments.
However, questions were also raised over the behaviour of Sam Allardyce, the former manager of Bolton Wanderers, and Graeme Souness, the former manager of Newcastle. Allardyce was criticised over a possible conflict of interest concerning him and his son Craig, a former agent. Craig Allardyce said yesterday that he had co-operated with the inquiry and would soon provideany further documentation required to clarify outstanding issues.
Inconsistencies were also found in evidence provided by Souness and Kenneth Shepherd, the son of the Newcastle chairman Freddy Shepherd, over their roles in transfers. In a statement, Souness said that he had volunteered “full information” to investigators and could not understand why he had been named.
The findings will also be sent by the Premier League to the Football Association, the English game’s ruling organisation, and Fifa, its international governing body.
Richard Caborn, the Sports Minister, said that he was deeply concerned that some agents had failed to co-operate with the inquiry. “It’s now for the FA and Fifa to pursue these agents vigorously and they will have my support every step of the way,” he said.
“The role of agents in football will always be controversial and that’s why they need proper regulation at national, European and international level.”
The Premier League and the FA also admitted some responsibility for failing to check transfers adequately. The League says in its report to clubs: “Both the Premier League and the FA have already accepted partial responsibility for not having effective checking and verification systems at the front end of the transfer process.
“However, this does not excuse the prevalence of slack administration and lack of understanding of complex rules by some clubs that have led to an unacceptable level of compliance.”
City of London Police said they had opened their own investigation into the sport and would examine any evidence handed to them by Lord Stevens. “Our investigation is ongoing,” a spokeswoman said, adding: “Lord Stevens’s inquiry is not influencing or informing our investigation in any way.”
~泰晤士報 |
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